Liu Xiu knew that his elder brother was doing it for his own good, but he didn't want to live under his wings all his life. He murmured in a low voice: "When I have achieved military exploits, even if you don't promote me, the county captain will promote me!"
"What did you say?" Liu Yan didn't quite hear Liu Xiu's mumbling.
"It's nothing, brother, Uncle Zhong and I are going for a walk nearby." After saying that, Liu Xiu ran away quickly.
Looking at Liu Xiu's back, Liu Yan shook his head helplessly. When he was at home, his third brother was quite obedient to his own words. Why did he become more thoughtful when he went outside?
Liu Yan still doesn't understand his younger brother very well. Liu Xiu has always been a very independent and independent person.
Liu Xiu had never been to Xiangyang before. It was rare for him to come to Xiangyang this time, so he naturally wanted to take a stroll. He and Long Yuan did not dare to go too far, so they just wandered around the registration office.
Xiangyang is a big city, prosperous and lively.
The registration office is located in the county government office, and there are naturally many shops nearby. Taverns and inns line both sides of the street. Each building is luxurious and magnificent, and the fragrance wafting out of it is very exciting.
Liu Xiu walked all the way from Caiyang to Xiangyang, and only ate two pieces of dry food on the way. Now smelling the fragrance in the air, his stomach growled unsatisfactorily. However, he touched his pockets and found that he was short of money.
Long Yuan didn't have any money on him. He looked around and saw a casino not far away. His eyes suddenly lit up. He pulled Liu Xiu's clothes and whispered: "Master, let's go to the casino to play a few games." .”
Liu Xiu looked at Long Yuan helplessly, took out the money bag from his belt, opened it, and poured out five copper coins.
During the Han Dynasty, silver was not a common currency and could only be regarded as a precious metal that could be sold for money.
The currency circulating in the market is either gold or coins.
There are many types of coins, including copper coins, platinum coins and leather coins.
Platinum coins are divided into three types, called the third grade of platinum coins, namely dragon coins, horse coins, and turtle coins.
The white gold that the ancients called is different from the modern white gold. It is an alloy of silver and tin. The dragon coin is worth three thousand coins, the ringgit is worth five hundred coins, and the turtle coin is worth three hundred coins.
Leather coins are quite special. They are made from the skin of white deer raised by the royal family. The maximum face value can reach 400,000 yuan, which is very rare.
The five copper coins in Liu Xiu's pocket couldn't buy anything at the current price, let alone go to the casino to gamble.
Long Yuan smiled at Liu Xiu and said, "Master, my gambling skills are pretty good."
Liu Xiu blinked, then smiled, raised his head and said, "Let's go to the casino to try our luck!"
Having been in contact with Long Yuan for so long, Liu Xiu also knows something about him. Long Yuan is a person who never exaggerates, especially when talking about himself, he will say two as one.
If he can say that his gambling skills are good, then he must be very good.
Liu Xiu and Long Yuan came to the casino. The casino was not very big, but there were a lot of people inside. Looking around, it was crowded and dark. The noise was deafening and shouts came and went.
The two of them walked near a gambling table and looked inside. There were several people sitting at the gambling table, and each of them had a mountain of coins piled in front of them.
Liu Xiu and Long Yuan watched for a while, and they noticed a young man at the same time.
This young man was about the same age as Liu Xiu, about 20 years old. He was dressed in ordinary white cloth, but he had handsome features and a face like a crown jewel. Among this group of gamblers, he looked particularly eye-catching and a little out of place. .
What surprised Liu Xiu the most was that the young man didn't gamble much every time, but he could win seven or eight times with ten bets. After only a few rounds, the pile of coins in front of him became bigger again.
After observing, Long Yuan whispered in Liu Xiu's ear: "This man is a master, my lord, you can bet with him."
Liu Xiuzheng had this intention. He squeezed through the crowd to the gaming table and slapped the five copper coins in his hand on the gaming table. Like the young man, he also bet small.
It was only five copper coins. The gamblers around didn't even look at Liu Xiu. Instead, the handsome young man raised his head and looked at Liu Xiu. The two looked at each other for a moment, then each smiled and took it back.
look.
Crop opened the big bowl that covered the dice. The three dice were one, one, two and four o'clock.
After seeing the result, there were cheers and angry curses around the gaming table. Even Liu Xiu had a smile on his face and took back his ten copper coins with profit.
Liu Xiu followed the young man in white and made bets three times in a row. Each time he made bets, his five coins turned into eighty coins.
When the young man in white was escorting the young man again, and Liu Xiu was about to continue escorting him, someone from behind gently tugged at his back.
With a sudden thought, he changed all the coins that were originally going to be small coins to large ones.
Seeing this, a flash of surprise flashed in the eyes of the young man in white, and he couldn't help but look up at Liu Xiu.
When the dealer opened the big bowl, the three dice inside were four, four, five, big.
The people who originally bet with the young man in white lost everything, and there were endless curses. Two others lost all their gambling money, and got up and left angrily. Before leaving, they did not forget to glare at the young man in white.
One glance.
Liu Xiu looked at the one hundred and sixty copper coins he had won back, and the smile in his eyes became even stronger.
In the next round, the young man in white still bet on the small boy, and many people still followed him to bet on the small boy. When Liu Xiu also wanted to bet on the small boy, Long Yuan tugged on his shirt again.
Understanding in his heart, Liu Xiu wanted to put the copper coins on Dashang again, but Long Yuan still pulled his clothes.
Liu Xiu looked surprised, thought for a moment, and decided to give up.
As the dealer opened the bowl, people took a closer look, and curses broke out all of a sudden. It turned out that the dealer rolled out three sixes, and they all took it all.
After two hands came down, those who followed the young man in white and bet almost lost their pants. On the contrary, only Liu Xiu had no loss at all.
The young man in white looked at Liu Xiu meaningfully, with a look of surprise in his eyes unconsciously.
He thought that his gambling skills were already very high, but he didn't expect that in Xiangyang, he met someone who was on par with him, and he was also similar in age to him.
In the next few rounds, the young man in white and Liu Xiu won several times in a row. The gambling money in front of Liu Xiu also accumulated more and more. When people started to follow them and bet together, Long Yuan whispered beside Liu Xiu.
Said: "Lord, enough is enough."
After hearing Long Yuan's reminder, Liu Xiu, who was in high spirits, immediately calmed down. He stopped depositing money, gathered up all the copper coins on the table, carried them in his pockets, and turned around to leave.
Seeing Liu Xiu leaving, the young man in white stopped gambling, collected his coins, and followed Liu Xiu away.
The banker watched the two of them leaving, narrowed his eyes, and a fierce light flashed in his eyes. He glanced to the side, and the clerk standing not far away immediately understood and ran away quickly.
In a casino, if you lose money, no one will care about you, but if you win money, and you still win a lot of money, it will not be so easy to leave.
Liu Xiu walked to the counter where the shopkeeper was, put all the copper coins he had won on the counter, and exchanged them for easy-to-carry turtle coins. A turtle coin is worth three hundred yuan, and it is much more convenient to carry it with you than copper coins.
After counting, Liu Xiu did not expect that in just a short period of time, he had won thousands of coins, exchanged them for three turtle coins, and still had more than two hundred copper coins left.
As soon as he finished the exchange, the young man in white also came over. The copper coins he won were much more than Liu Xiu's. They were wrapped in a large piece of cloth and made a muffled clang when they were placed on the counter.
Opening the package, there were both copper coins and turtle coins inside. The shopkeeper couldn't help but look surprised when he looked at it. He was about to ask the boy to count them when the young man in white waved his hand nonchalantly and said, "No need to order them. I'll exchange these for a dragon coin."
It should be more than enough, right?”
The shopkeeper's face was ugly, but with so many people watching nearby, he couldn't be fooled, so he had to exchange it for the young man in white. The shopkeeper slowly reached into his arms and escaped from it with an exquisite brocade bag.
Open it and take out a dragon coin inside.
The dragon coin weighs eight taels and is round. The dragon coin is called "Baizhuan" and is worth three thousand. - "Hanshu Shihuo Zhi"
After Wang Mang came to power, although he carried out a series of currency reforms and introduced many new currencies, in fact the value of the new currencies has been greatly reduced. However, the old currencies from the Western Han Dynasty are still circulating in large numbers among the people, including those from the Western Han Dynasty.
Copper coins (five baht coins), platinum coins, etc.
Seeing the shopkeeper take out the dragon coin from the brocade bag, even Liu Xiu, who was not far away, couldn't help but take a second look. This was the first time he saw what the dragon coin looked like.
The young man in white weighed the dragon coin in his hand and looked at the color and texture. It was indeed real. Fang nodded, put it in his arms and said, "Thank you very much."
As he spoke, he turned around and walked out. When he passed Liu Xiu, he smiled and asked, "Brother, aren't you leaving?"
Liu Xiu smiled and walked out of the casino with the young man in white. When they got outside, the young man in white looked at Liu Xiu with a smile and said, "Brother, your gambling skills are very good! Do you know your surname?"
"I'm Liu Xiu."
"My name is Li Tong." Liu Xiu and the young man in white each reported their names and then saluted each other.
The young man in white, Li Tong, turned his eyes, looked at Long Yuan beside Liu Xiu, and asked with a smile: "Who is this?"
"I'm here, Uncle Long Zhong!" Long Yuan cupped his hands casually.
Although Long Yuan's attitude was a bit arrogant, Li Tong still bowed his hand and saluted him, and then he said with a smile: "The surname Long is not common. If I remember correctly, there was an important criminal wanted by the court a while ago.
His surname is Long. Coincidentally, the wanted criminal has the same scar on his forehead as Brother Long, but the shape of the scar is different."
The speaker was unintentional, but the listener was intentional. Liu Xiu and Long Yuan were both shocked, and something strange flashed in their eyes when they looked at Li Tong.
The portrait is not a photo, it can only be a rough sketch, and now Long Yuan still has a beard, which is very different from the portrait, but Li Tong still connected him with Long Yuan.
Seeing that both of them looked a little unnatural, Li Tong waved his hands with a smile and said, "I just said it casually. Brother Liu and Brother Long won't blame me, right?"